URLs du Jour

2009-02-24

I love it when people use movie metaphors to make a point. Nick
Gillespie of Reasontakes off on the news that President
Obama has tasked his Vice President to "oversee implementation"
of the "stimulus" package.

The idea of Joe Biden--the feller who created the position of the
drug czar; plagiarized from Robert Kennedy and British pol Neil Kinnock;
called Barack Obama "clean" and "articulate" the day he announced he
(Biden) was running for president; voted in favor of both Gulf Wars; and
more and more--being in charge of anything other than a card game on
the Acela club car is pretty disturbing. To have overseeing the
implementation of nearly $800 billion in government loot boggles the
mind. It's like Jimmy Stewart turning over his bank's money to Uncle
Billy for safekeeping in It's a Wonderful Life.

In other economic news, Alex Tabarrok of Marginal Revolutionnotes
an NYTstory:

Helicopter Plan Is Excessive, Obama and McCain Agree

Alex makes the obscure joke that this means

… they will not be trying one of Milton Friedman's more radical ideas.

Hah! Alex doesn't explain the joke, but you can dig it out of Wikipedia.

The NYT article is actually about the cost to replace the "Marine
One" helicopter fleet that shuttles the President around: current
estimates are in the please-be-sure-you're-sitting-down $11 billion
range.

To put that number in perspective: according to Wikipedia,
Israel's entire yearly defense budget is around $13.3 billion.

As I occasionally mention, my day job is as a semi-competent
computer system administrator, or as we like to say, a sysadmin.
So when I see a "Sysadmins Gone Wild" link, it's a
must-click.

Unfortunately, the only picture is of Milton from Office Space.
Who was not a sysadmin. Still, good article, for those of us
who occasionaly have unprofessional fantasies of wreaking havoc
on an abusive institution.
(Via both BBSpot
and GeekPress)

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